A fragment of a late 4th Century Roman helmet. This fragment is the
Ridge portion of the helmet. It is about a 1/4 of the length of the
original one, and would have secured the two helmet halves together in the
center.

This piece appears to have been silvered, and was not covered in a silver
or gold sheathing, as some more famous helmet were.

There are punched concentric circle decorations that run along the edge in
between the rivet holes. The front center hole appears to have
either been where the nasal section was riveted on, or perhaps where a Chi
Rho crest was fasened to (such as shown on this
original piece). A set of punched lines run along the base of
the ridge, providing a nice decorative highlight. The first two rivet
holes near the top of the fragment show where the Ridge would have been
riveted to the helmet base.

A
nice green patina covers the piece, and the underside still has remnants
of the water encrustations.

This is a rare piece, as most of the helmets had an Iron core and
therefore very few survive today. It is unknown if this piece was
simple a bronze accent acting as the ridge portion of an otherwise Iron
helmet, or if the entire helmet was in Bronze. A part of a bronze
helmet was sold in the Guttmann collection (see below), however I do nor
know of any other bronze examples.